No suspension for Milan Lucic

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WILMINGTON — Milan Lucic will not be suspended for his hit on Buffalo Sabres goalie Ryan Miller on Saturday night. Lucic had a hearing with NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan earllier this afternoon.

“I had the hearing because I did make an initial assessment of the play as I do with all plays, but I did have some questions for Milan and I wanted to hear directly from him,” Shanahan told NHL.com. “They were regarding his intent; at what point did he know there was going to be a collision, and whether or not he felt he had the time to avoid the collision. I was satisfied with his answers.”

Earlier in the day, Lucic continued to defend himself in regards to the incident.

“It’s exactly the same thing I said after the game,” said Lucic. “I blocked a shot and pushed the puck a little too far ahead of me and I skated after the puck as fast as I possibly could. I looked up and he was still in his net. I looked down at the puck and was continuing on and the next thing I knew, I looked up and he’s coming out full speed at me.

“Obviously it was a hard collision and I did everything I could just to brace myself. Like he said, I have 50 pounds on him and that’s why maybe he got the worst of it. Even if you look at the video, I was cringing after the play, too, because I was winded and because it was such a hard collision. And he got a good piece of me as well.”

Shanahan felt that under the league rules, the two minute charging penalty was both correct and sufficient.

“The minor penalty called on the ice was the correct call,” Shanahan said. “And, while it’s unfortunate that Miller was hurt I saw nothing egregious about this hit that would elevate it to supplemental discipline.”

The Sabres announced on Sunday that Miller would be out indefinitely with a concussion.

Lucic expressed some surprise that Miller had suffered a concussion, given the new rules in the NHL that require players who are exhibiting concussion symptoms to go to the quiet room for 10 to 15 minutes to get checked out. Miller finished the first period and played the entire second period before leaving the game after being looked at by Boston doctors.

“I’ve looked at the hit 100 times and they said that he got a concussion,” said Lucic. “His shoulder hit my chest, so there was no hit to his head. His helmet came flying off but his head didn’t hit the ice. And later in the period, someone lifted (Tyler Seguin’s) stick and threw him into the net as well, so who knows what it was. It’s obviously unfortunate that he got hurt on the play.

“Was I surprised? Yeah. Because with the new protocol and the concussion stuff, I know the last three NHLPA meetings that I’ve been a part of and their clarifying of concussions and head injuries, the main thing that they’ve talked about is there’s no such thing as getting your bell rung or seeing stars anymore. That’s considered a concussion and if you’re in that position, you have to do whatever you can do to take yourself out of play. Obviously, Ryan plays a big part in the NHLPA and I respect what he does there. That’s pretty much it.”

Coach Claude Julien said he saw the play the way Lucic did and added that it’s not the first time an unfortunate soul got in front of the determined, though not exactly agile, skater.

“It certainly wasn’t our plan to run him over, and for what it’s worth, Looch has done the same thing to one of our coaches last year,” said Julien. “He buries his head when he chases a puck and when he lifts it up, somebody’s there. Last year it was a coach, this year it was Miller.”